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Building with Mud

By David Mason-Jones

Let me open this article with a personal anecdote which shows how quickly a mud building skeptic became a mud building believer.

Seven or eight years ago I was travelling with my young daughter and we were driving through a rural area. I realised the trip would take me close to the mud brick home of a friend of mine and I said, “Let’s call in to see the mud house. I have an open invitation.” My daughter was extremely reluctant and couldn’t see the point. She obviously had some primitive images of what a mud brick home would look like. I prevailed and she reluctantly tailed along for the visit.

When we bade farewell after a detailed inspection my daughter’s first words when we got in the car were, “Dad, that’s the best house I have ever seen in my life.”

The purchase of many farms entails the purchase of an existing house which may have been the traditional farmstead for many decades. In these cases the need to build a house, let alone a mud construction house does not arise. Many small farms, however, are coming into existence through the subdivision of larger properties. In these cases the new owner is often buying a series of paddocks without any residence included. This is the situation where the new owner needs to evaluate housing options.

Another factor to be taken into account is the future value perception of a mud construction house. The reader must consider this factor before setting on a mud construction course. The evaluation must be upon the reader’s research and values not mine.

Determining future value is a difficult question because there are some prospective farm purchasers who would never look at a mud brick house no matter what the logical benefits might be and no matter what the lifestyle benefits might be.

On the other hand, the assessment of future value may take into account the fact that there seems to be a growing desire amongst wealthy city residents to own a farm and live in the country. Part of this desire seems to be that they do not just want to move to the country and live in a building which is for all intents and purposes - no different to what they had in the city. They want something unique.

The architecture of farm homes has the potential to be more spacious than the space conscious designs in the city. For these reasons, a mud construction house may provide a highly positive contribution to the future capital value of the property.

The point to be made here is that building in mud should not be seen as some type of an alternative lifestyle statement. It can be a highly cost effective way of building a spacious house on a small rural property. However, a strong caveat needs to be stated before anyone begins a mud construction home. The caveat is that, while the project may be cheaper in materials than the standard alternatives, it will definitely be more expensive in the personal time commitment you will be required to make. Depending on how you ‘cost’ your time, it may turn out that mud construction is actually more expensive than the option of getting a contractor to build a standard house.

A few factors include:-

Evaluate the time commitment: Do not start a mud construction home until you have thoroughly thought through the time issue. The time to the finished product is likely to be many months or years rather than several weeks or few months in the case of mass construction homes.

Explore alternative methods: I have been cautious to avoid the use of the term ‘mud brick’ in this article. The use of mud bricks is only one of the alternatives. Do not lock yourself in to mud brick as the only option of mud construction homes. Mud brick has the advantage that it may appear simple - simply form the bricks in a frame or mould and leave them in the sun to dry. Once dry lift them into the wall and bind them to the other bricks with moist sifted mud. However, the physical problem of lifting these 300mm X 200mm X 150mm bricks into the walls and setting them in place can be daunting.

It is worth exploring the alternative of a píse construction method where a wall frame is built rather like a concrete framing in civil construction and the moist earth formed into the wall frame and packed down. This method is more complicated in the need to build and dismantle frame but is simpler in that it avoids the need to make vast numbers of bricks.

Both methods involve the lifting of large tonnages of earth into the wall at some stage.

Combine options: Having selected a mud construction technique it is not necessary to complete the building only with that technique. Mud construc-tion has the flexibility to be combined with walls of clay fired brick and other wall construction methods.

Test your materials: The mere fact that there is obviously earth of some kind at your building site does not guarantee that it will be suitable for mud construction. The suitab-ility can vary with the proportion of clay, sand or pebbles in the earth. There are well defined testing methods to assess the load bearing capacity of your soil and its resistance to erosion. Local councils will require these tests prior to construction commencing.

Efficient design: Due to the huge mass of mud construction walls, the building has major advan-tages in respect to insulation. Some of these advantages can be lost through bad design, such as windows facing the sun in Summer, so careful design of the layout and orientation of the house will maximise the insulation benefits of the home. Efficient design of a mud construction dwelling will lead to significant future reductions in the costs of home heating and cooling.

Concrete rendering: While it may not be an aesthetic finish desired by all, it is possible to finish the walls with a concrete rendering. In this case the home can be finished in such a way that it has none of the rustic appearance of mud brick.

Talk to a builder: There are specialist mud brick builders who can help with design features and building techniques. This is one of the steps that can be taken to ensure a high future capital value for the building.

Arrange alternate accommodation: The mud construction project may take years to complete and so an alternate form of accommodation must be arranged. If living in a caravan is your style, this may be the best alternative. On the other hand the mud construction project may be your weekend work and you remain living in your existing home while construction is underway. Finally, you may have to rent while the building is being erected. In this case you need to ‘cost-in’ the rent expense as part of the real cost of the mud construction dwelling.

Conclusion: Mud con-struction offers the flexibility to build either a ‘mainstream’ style of house on your property or the ability to build a unique and rustic design. All factors need to be assessed before starting the project.

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